Right of Reply to the Russian Federation
As delivered by Ambassador Michael Carpenter
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
September 22, 2022
The lies and distortions we just heard were truly phenomenal. I don’t think I’ve heard anything like that in a long time, mostly because I leave the room rather than listen to that absolute drivel. But I wanted to come to a different point. I wanted to bring the attention of everyone in this Council to a statement that was made by the President of the Russian Federation. It is in a tweet from the Russian embassy in the UK and says, quoting President Putin, “The West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them?”
I would suggest that the employees of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs might want to educate their political leadership on the existence of the UN Charter, or the Helsinki Final Act, or indeed the Geneva Conventions, or indeed the Genocide Convention.
To question whether there is a rules-based order? And to sit in this Council at the same time and parse rules of procedure? Really? I think that should be astonishing and shocking for everyone in this room, no matter what country you represent. Because why else are we here if it is not to uphold the rules-based order, if it is not to defend the principles upon which the entire international system is based? And “who agreed to them”? Well, let me tell you who agreed to them. The heads of state of all of the countries sitting in this room.
I find this truly astonishing.
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